Societies: Democracies, Socialism and Capitalism

We have various features of societies right now. Some are representative democracies, some centrally-controlled socialist states. And most participate in the open market capitalist system even though in name they are communist states.

Capitalism, Socialism And Democracies

Capitalism and socialism arise on the back of industrialization and arise from the ashes of feudalism. Democracies as an intellectual pining has it’s roots from even the Greeks some two thousand years ago. But it flourished as a mass operational political system just as capitalism arises.

Democracies in the most basic form proposes that the state should be ruled by it’s people and it is therefore operationalized by the voting system- which elects the people who will represent the electorate in running of the state. This is insofar a practical form of democracy as ideally actually each person should have a say in running of his own polity.

But as states grow and population expands, it would be impractical to practice such democracy in this form hence we have the legal system to ensure that the representative democracy is as fair, transparent and as “representative” as possible.

Socialism on the other hand arise as a result of mass industrialization and unfettered capitalism- which was propose as a more just and equal system- as it emphasizes on equality and need for economic distribution rather than a market-driven one. It replaces the individual in deciding state matters but rather places faith in the system that all goods and resources would be distributed fairly and equally.

Since the individual is unable to articulate his self-interested needs and wants on basis of social justice and equality, therefore representation in politics is seen as a secondary matter. Therefore it is no wonder that socialist and communist states than to be centrally controlled by a person, or an organization- which tends to be the military, as they can have prevent organized violence against the state, or a well-respected group of elites.

Capitalism is not a political ideology but rather a label to describe a market-driven economy based on the movements of capital which ideally would produce where demand requires. Capital can be in form of machines and other means to produce goods but in modern times, we would normally refer to money- as with money, we can buy machines to produce goods.

Industrialization on the other hand means the mass production of goods mostly via machines or modern method of production- the idea is organized production which prides on uniformity and quantity- as opposed to previous modes of production which either requires the delicate labour of craftsman or haphazard production of labour like in agriculture and textile. Industrialization therefore requires a large mass labour force to produce goods for mass consumption.

But as technologies improve, the requirement for labour as greatly reduced and conditions improved. But nonetheless, in modern times, quite a number of goods still require to produce and mass automation- where humans are seen as managers rather than labourers- is only seen in industries like in consumer goods- in food and beverage and in certain high-tech ones.

Capitalism and Democracies

It would not be unsurprising to really conclude that democracies- which prides on individuals- is quite incompatible with capitalism-which requires a large labour force for production.

Assuming that we only have one country in this world, and it is a democracy, it would not be unsurprising that many go back to subsistence living and farming, as they might not be able to agree on who is suppose to be working for the privilege for whom.

It is therefore unsurprising that many developed and mature economies have farmed out the production of many of their primary and secondary goods to countries where control of mass labours is more pronounced- which ultimately tend to be communist or hierarchical societies, where centralized control is easier and quicker.

It can be said that in these mature economies that they are living their lifestyle on back of these communist and hierarchical states which enable them to farm out their undesirable production at a cheaper rate too while living a fairly comfortable middle-class lifestyle.

For example, while designers and engineers work on creating the next iPhone with comfortable office chairs and cafeteria in America, the actual grunt work production occurs in China.

Capital Accumulation

How they are able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle while enabling a constant flow of cheap goods and labour is two fold. 1) Capital hoarding 2) order. Capital in it’s tangible form is money, and money is derived from labour and ownership of machinery.

1) How money [or capital] is accumulated and increases exponentially is the result of surplus labour being accumulated on the end of capital rather than that being distributed to labours.

For example an iPhone is sold for a thousand dollars. Design and creativity is paid to the 2 engineers say $150 in America for every iPhone sold. The actual production for every iPhone say cost $200- and this $200 is distributed to 100 workers along the entire production chain in China. Take in for example, it takes another $50 for other logistical cost to pay say 25 workers for around the world. And lastly they pay the single manager in America- $150 to manage the entire process. And of course they have to pay taxes- say $100 to both sides of the government. And the rest of $300- goes to that one original capital owner. And perhaps, he owns some shares in say Microsoft as well. And you can imagine the capital owners accumulate even more capital

And smart managers and entrepreneurs would therefore reinvest used $200 to invent better machines and better products to earn even more money and reinvest the rest to earn interest. And it’s original $400 would multiply for every successful venture. Everyone tell me that there is risk in every business venture- but you would not do too badly if you have the above cost structure, you might make just lesser money thats all.

And imagine this process would be accelerating even faster- why, technology. Imagine if everything else is automated. We can pay the engineers, the logistics less and removed the entire labour force and pay the manager slightly more, pay the governments more in terms of taxes to support their pro-business policies. And the capital owners would make $500 instead- much more than the original $300. Imagine, this process has been repeated since 1800 and think how large this orginal $200 has become now.

How then do I say that this is accumulated surplus of labour [or profit]- imagined that this original $300 accrued to one single capital owner should be equally to everyone in the entire labour process and we give him $50 for the risk taking. Do you think he can accumulate sufficient “surplus labour” and use the capital to employ this capital to built other goods to reinvest again. He can- but his reduced capital means that he is no longer so powerful in the market-driven economy.

One could have imagine that since it is so blatantly unjust- how come there were no repeated calls to do something. There were. In China, Russia, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, Germany and North Korea- successful ones that is.

2) Order
As one can see, it is to the interest of mature and developed societies and classes to keep things the way it is. We consume and engage in activities that is desirable to us while leaving the grunt work to economies and classes that are more inclined to these activities.

How then, could we maintain this prevailing order?

Media, organized violence and coercion.

- Media shaped opinions to legitimize prevailing order. Some provide intellectual justification while others delve into popular culture to allow certain ideas to go down a little smoother. Essentially, when you are happy working, then I am happy.

- If all these does not work- there is a threat or actual employment of violence and other coercion methods. Any methods is employable- be it legal or “right” and perhaps “extra-legal” and ambiguous. The point is to ensure that you agree with me.

When you are able to control the actions and minds of people while maintaining monopoly in the markets and economies- essentially what you have is a satisfied work-force and a peaceful, leisurely life.

Nations as a stratified society

What I have spoken is in terms of global relations- but such segmentation exist too within society and economies.

Every society would have a class that serve another class. And it’s picture is similar in terms what is seen above and methods, causes are similar in both form and functions.

The essential difference would be that within nations and countries, the government plays a much more important role in the segmentation because international policing is fraught with ambiguous areas and issues of sovereignty as compared with national ones where the state normally has monopoly in organized violence and coercion means, and media policing and censorship.

The segmentation and balance within societies and nations hence depend on the strength of the governments and on which side does it lies on.

*Important*

This is a personal opinion and does not represent any organization. It would therefore be foolhardy to take it upon yourself as an ideal without taking into consideration local and indigenous factors. I would not bear any responsibility for any actions taken as a result of the above thesis